Stolen Moments
by LovelyParadise256
Summary: Memories are sacred, tales of what once was and would never be again. Many people envy a perfect memory, but Lavi finds it to be nothing short of a curse. Given the chance to learn everything about the past of the Noahs, Lavi soon learns that there are things best kept unknown to even Bookmen. Life certainly does have a sick sense of humor and Lavi seems to be its favorite toy.
1. Chapter 1

**_Stolen moments._**

 ** _Chapter 1: And nothing remains in the ashes._**

 **This is my first attempt at a D Gray Man story, so I apologize ahead of time if the characters are OOC. I try my hardest to ensure they remain as they are in the story, but I'm just learning how to accurately portray the characters, so please bear with me.**

 **That aside, this is a very AU story but it takes place during canon time. As not to ruin what happens in this epilogue of sorts I'll add the rest of my ramblings to the bottom ^.^ Enjoy!**

The sky was alight with colors, various shades of blues, reds and yellows littering the once flawless sky as the telltale signs of night slowly began claiming the day. Clouds, seeming to understand the shift in time, easily moved to the side, unwilling to block wandering eyes from the marvelous sight that was the sunset.

It was a pity, really, Lavi couldn't help but muse, that the town's people had to miss this no doubt once in a life time sight. Sure sunsets occurred every day, but for some reason this one just seemed so much lovelier than its predecessors.

The colors blended together so naturally, making it so the sky was nothing short of breathtaking. He allowed himself one more moment to bask in the beauty, committing the scene to memory. He figured that it was definitely something pretty enough to look back on for his own selfish desires.

After all, who said a Bookman wasn't allowed a moment or two to enjoy the beauty of the world when he wasn't focusing on the history of it? If the damned panda was so picky about always writing down everything he saw then he had no quarrels with putting his observations down on paper just to spite the elder. By then the colors would be long gone, shrouded in the darkness of the past, which would technically make it history.

His nonsensical musings were cut short as a sudden scream ruptured his self-induced world of peace and the red head couldn't help but feel a slight frown tug at his lips as his last few moments of serenity were plucked from his grasp, instead reminding him that he had a job to do that wasn't wasting time mentally complimenting a natural occurrence.

"Sheesh, can't a guy just take a minute and enjoy the smaller things in life?" He complained childishly to himself as he tore his gaze away from the setting sky. Instead he glanced down from the building he was currently standing on, watching emotionlessly as yet another akuma attacked – and promptly killed- another poor citizen.

This really was becoming tedious, the green eyed man thought dryly to himself as he begrudgedly plopped down on the side of the somehow still standing roof and dangled his boot clad feet and calves carelessly over the edge, dangerously hovering nearly two dozen feet above the rubble cluttered road.

How long had he been here, again? A few hours, perhaps? And yet there was still nothing particularly intriguing occurring. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

It was drop dead dull.

"Why the hell did that old panda want me to come here anyway?" The boy grumbled to himself as he tiredly rested his chin on his upturned palm, an emerald eye lazily watching the death and destruction continuing on below, "None of this is even important to history…"

Death, blood, screams, it was nothing new to the one day Bookman, but then again that didn't exactly surprise him. This was just another war, after all. Why should this one be any different than any of the others?

These people, the ones crying below for a god who did not exist to save them, were nothing more than unfortunate victims caught in a cross fire between two unnatural forces both fighting for yet another deity who was nothing more than a myth; common folklore used to assure the weak that there was a higher being out there willing to protect them.

They would die, as so many others did, for no other reason than to allow a war that they were not aware of to continue on. A war in which would lead to nothing more than more deaths, more screams, and more blood. Patterns never did seem to end.

It was pathetic, but the red head knew that it was the nature of humans. He could not bring himself to expect anything less.

"What, does the bloodshed below not amuse you, Eyepatch?"

Instantly the red head perked up at the sudden voice that wasn't a scream, a grin spreading across his face as he turned to regard the person standing behind him, which is if the voice was anything to judge location by.

"Nah, it's nothing new. Really, I don't know why the old man is always so insistent on me recording these things. It'd just get lost in history with all the other villages slaughtered, anyway."  
People this meager had no place in history. Their lives, in the eyes of the majority, were nothing more than mere bumps in the eternal path that was time.

"Yes, I believe I have to agree with that." The deep voice chuckled softly as he came up to stand beside the younger boy, his eyes flickering from the massacre below to the Bookman Junior lounging so leisurely on the edge of the roof and watched in interest as the green eyes of the boy took note of the deaths passively, as though it was something far from new to him. Then again, the man supposed that for Lavi this really wasn't new.

Not that he held any room to judge when it came to that subject, the other inhabitant of the barely standing roof thought amusedly to himself as his gray hand came up to idly scratch the back of his head and once again regarded the akuma below. After all, he had seen and caused more deaths than the ones currently being committed.

 _The pot calling the kettle black, I suppose._ He inwardly mused.

"Tell me, eyepatch, does this scene really not bother you? Do you not find it in the least bit intimidating that all these things, these _people_ , are being slaughtered like cattle?"  
"What? Come on, don't go losing your memory, old man." The red head laughed, glancing over at the suit clad man standing only inches from his form, "You know how I feel about humans."

"Yes, that is true."  
It was one of many topics in which the two found themselves in agreement on.

"So, what brings you into my neck of the woods, mole?" Lavi jeered playfully, purposefully mentioning the beauty mark that he knew irritated the otherwise flawless noble, "Miss me that much already?"

Tyki couldn't help but snicker at the arrogant question, knowing that it was the red head's way of playing with him.

"If I was to say that I happened upon here by coincidence, would you believe me?"  
"Heh, no way in hell."  
"I thought as much."  
The Noah smiled and finally turned so that he was fully facing the younger man, adjusting his top hat leisurely as the wind threatened to whip it off his head and into the battlefield dying down below.

"What are you really here for, Tyki? You and everyone else already knows that I can handle this job on my own, so why stop by?"

The shorter of the two finally stood once more, stretching out his relaxed muscles as he awaited an answer.

"I have no qualms that you can complete this." The Portuguese man assured, his tone almost resembling that of a purr as he crossed his arms, "I just thought I would come and see how things were progressing. I have no other engagements and Road is in a particularly irritating mood today without Lero around to pester."

"So you only came here because I was the lesser of the evils? Aw, I'm hurt, beauty mark."

"Don't you have a job to do here, Red?"

As the older of the two, the Noah sought to be the bigger person and disregarded the brat's last comment, although he did plan on getting him back later for the stupid nickname he just refused to drop.  
The beauty mark wasn't even that noticeable… was it?

"Yeah, yeah, geez, you're starting to sound like the panda…" Lavi complained, a slight pout marring his face as he carelessly leapt off of the building and landed precariously on the road, his head turning from side to side as he attempted to get an idea of his surroundings, "Well, looks like the akuma are pretty much done here anyway. I might as well just get this over with…"

Without another word the red head began his trek through the village, the sound of footsteps trailing behind him the only clue that the other man had decided to join him on his little walk.

"Looks like they've made quite the mess of things." Tyki mused idly to himself as he scanned their ruined surroundings, hands coming down to fiddle absentmindedly with a cigarette. His nonchalance making it obvious that he was not bothered in the slightest by the smell of death pungent in the air or the dozens of very human, very dead forms surrounding them.

Lavi, on the other hand, made no move to respond to the other's useless comment. Instead he studied everybody separately, ensuring they were dead before adding them to his mental list of deceased.

There were no more akuma in sight, leading the red head to believe that they had finished eradicating the area of human life forms and thus had taken their leave to the outskirts of the premises, as was instructed. Lavi himself disliked the creatures and didn't want them getting in his way after they finished what was expected of them.

The village, being as small as it was, wouldn't take long at all to patrol and record, much to the relief of the Bookman Junior. He just wanted to get this done with already. Then he could return home and read the book that he was in the middle of.

"145… 146… 147…"

The young man's muttered counting and the soft shuffle of two pairs of feet were the only sounds now penetrating the once loud air, leaving an almost eerie feeling to shower over the two men, but that too was nothing new.

The red head continued his soft counting as they all but finished up exploring the city, making certain that every last dead body was accounted for.

"234… 235… 23-… What?"

Lavi suddenly halted in his movements, nearly causing the man tailing him to run into the smaller boy.

"Lavi? What is it?"

The future bookman ignored the question, his attention preoccupied on the body of a young man- no doubt about Lavi's age- sprawled out on the side of the road only inches from the traveling pair. Rubble covered half of the kid's frame and blood soaked the surrounding area, as was usual for a dead body. However, the one thing not so normal with the scene was the blue eye that remained open and trained on the red head, an almost pleading glint to it.

This body was not dead at all. It was alive, however barely.

Interesting…

"H-help…"

The voice was weak and laced with the signs of death, proving that even if they were willing to help the boy- which they weren't- they wouldn't be able to. The poor lad was already too far gone thanks to the serious lacerations decorating his pale body, the crack on his blonde skull and the puddle of blood that just continued to seep into the greedy ground,

"P-please… Monsters…"  
"You're still alive?" It was a stupid question, Lavi knew that. Of course he was alive, he was talking, wasn't he? But still, he couldn't help but ask it, his curiosity peaked, "Judging by how much blood you lost it's a miracle you are even still conscious let alone _alive_."

He was being cruel, he was well aware of it, yet he did not stop,

"I hate to tell you this, kid, but you're just too far gone, ya know? Can't help injuries like that, even if I wanted to."

The red head crossed his arms and stepped closer to the fearful teen, making no move to comfort the terrified individual all but begging for help in front of him.

"Looks like your little pets missed one." The Noah of pleasure chuckled, lighting yet another cigarette before sticking it into his mouth, "Tch, tch, did you not train them better than that?"

"Ah, shut it, Tyki. Those things are too idiotic, no matter how many times I try to teach'em to be precise." The bookman in training shrugged, "Now hush, I wanna try something…"  
Seeming to obey the halfhearted order, Tyki watched with interest as the red head stared intently into the dying boy's eyes, deaf to the small, feeble cries for help that still resounded from the figure. It was pitiful, really.

Lavi stayed like that for several moments, his eyes never wavering from the near corpse's as their staring contest progressed. It continued on for almost a minute before Junior blinked and nodded almost in understanding to himself, a look of small disgust appearing on his pale face.

"Saw your whole family get murdered before your eyes, did ya? That's rough. Sorry 'bout that. But I gotta say, that was pretty damn noble of ya, pushing your little sister out of the way and all so that she wouldn't get hit by the blast that put you into this sorry state. But…" The red head ruffled his hair, heaving a sigh as he turned away from the startled looking boy who stared at the eye patch wearing individual in a mixture of pain, horror, and curiosity, "It's really too bad that your efforts were in vain… She didn't last much longer after your little sacrifice, did she? Too bad…"  
Lavi cringed inwardly at his own words, biting his lower lip in discomfort as the scene he described played over in his head again.

It was from the point of view of the blonde boy and he could feel the emotions surging through the teen's body as he and his sister hastily fled from their desecrated house, their parents already long gone thanks to the monsters ransacking their once peaceful town.

The boy was terrified, rightly so, as he continuously prodded his younger sister to run. She looked rather similar to him, though she could hardly be past the age of ten while her brother was no doubt at least eighteen, maybe older, but the red head couldn't say he really cared all that much.

Instead he watched how the boy saw a beam of energy coming towards his sister and, with a surge of ever so helpful mock bravery, he so selflessly shoved his darling sister aside and took the blow himself. The attack shot right through his chest –hitting a lung if Lavi's understanding of the pain the boy felt was true- before he was thrown back into a nearby wall. Bits and pieces of the makeshift house crumbled down on the boy and he could just barely make out through the glassy eyes of the teen the images of the scared girl getting shot just moments after her brother, however she was obviously killed instantly.

Just like he thought.

A pity.

Lavi shook his head and quickly stashed the memory into the farthest recesses of his mind, not wanting to dwell on it any longer. It didn't matter. Their pain and suffering didn't matter to him…

"See something again, Red?"  
The red head hesitated for a moment, his one green eye closing before reopening to look at the Noah who was studying him curiously.

"Yeah… I saw that kid and his sister get attacked…"  
The pleasure nodded slightly, dropping the cigarette he was working on onto the floor before crushing it with his shoe,

"You'll get used to it. We all had to."

Get used to it…

"Yeah, I know. I guess I will, but it's still weird, ya know? I mean, seeing people's memories is great and all, but it's weird too. It's 'cause I don't just see their memories, I experience first-hand what they went through and what they were feeling and it's just… Just different…"

Memories… They certainly weren't something foreign to the bookman, who spent his whole life preserving his own for the sake of taking note of the events that transpired later, however there was just something different about seeing them so intimately and close up…

There was something even stranger about being able to bring the fear others felt towards the monsters in their past to real life in the shape of tangible illusions.

"You know Road is willing to help you with that still." The noble Noah pointed out, his golden eyes narrowed slightly at the expressionless ginger, "Your abilities are somewhat like hers. She's actually pretty happy about it."

"Yeah… Heh… Guess I'll have ta take her up on that offer…"  
Tyki smiled,

"Of course… Now, shall I?"

He gestured to the barely conscious boy, a malicious edge curling his lips into a grin.

"Go ahead… He's too far gone now…"  
No doubt pleased by the ginger's response, Tyki leaned over the dying boy, wasting not a moment as he began his gruesome method of murder.

The red head turned away as the boy's scream echoed throughout the empty village as he was unceremoniously gutted and the Bookman to be couldn't help but finger his headband, making certain it remained where it was as he began to walk away from the scene.

His hand hovered over the cloth on his head as the yells began to die down, no doubt due to the owner's slow demise.

He was being slowly murdered by a Noah who found too much pleasure from the kill.

He was dying because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time…

Lavi fingered the headband tightly, his eye shutting tightly as the boy's memories played over and over in his head.

The boy… Lucas, was his name… He had such potential… He wanted to be a doctor… He wanted to help people in need…

He was now dead.

Lavi scoffed softly at his own reactions and shook his head, his green eye opening once more as he heard the sound of Tyki's footsteps walking to catch up with him.

He couldn't let himself continue to be terrorized by the thoughts and memories of those he saw. It shouldn't matter to him what they were thinking when they saw their loved ones die.

Instead he was to passively examine their memories and take note of any details he did not see himself, that was it and as far as he was concerned that boy knew nothing of any real help.

That was the job and one of the abilities he had gained only months ago due to a certain change of events…

His hands unconsciously slipped under the headband and nails scratched at his forehead in the exact spot that he knew now was marked with a certain pattern…

The pattern of a Noah…

The marking of the Noah of Memories…

TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL

Kanda snickered in irritation to himself as he scanned the demolished town, the anger radiating fiercely from his person proving just how pissed off he was upon finding the town.

"Dammit, they got here before we did…" The samurai growled, his eyes narrowing as he passively glanced at the countless bodies littering the ground, "Then this was just a huge waste of my time…"  
Slipping Mugen back into its case, the exorcist scowled before turning to the finders accompanying him, who had wisely moved to stand at least several yards away from the irritated man,

"Call the damn Order and tell them that they sent us too late. The innocence is long gone by now and there's no Akuma in sight… Damn it, a Noah must have gotten to it last night…"

Feeling his anger only rise at that last thought, the long haired man carelessly explored the town after he had received a squeak of an agreement from the terrified Finder, seeing if there was any trace of an Akuma left for him to take his ever growing rage out on, because damn it this was the second time in a month that a Noah had destroyed an innocence and a town before he had even gotten there! This was becoming really ridiculous really quickly.

The town was completely ransacked and destroyed, once beautiful and lovely houses now fallen in heaps of bricks and glass, mere shells of the masterpieces they once were. Had Kanda actually been the type to feel normal human emotions such as empathy or pity he would probably be upset by the seemingly endless number of murdered corpses cluttering the area.

But he wasn't. The only reason he was even irritated at all was that he was forced to come all the way out here just to look at a fucking graveyard.

He growled inwardly to himself once more as he turned a corner, his black eyes closing for a moment before reopening, prepared to glare once more at the disaster surrounding him when instead he found himself pausing, eyes widening at the sight before him.

This half of the town was, just like the other, a mess of rubble and bodies, however there was a large difference in appearance. Whilst in the rest of the town the ground and buildings were laying around in heaps from force, this half looked almost as though it was burned to a crisp.

Ash littered the pavement and only the bear remainders of houses occupied the plots that once harvested an entire building. The rest had been long since burned beyond recognition.

It looked as though a fire had done away with this area quite swiftly, which really wasn't unusual given the situation, but what was unusual was the pattern in which it appeared the fire had traveled.

Regular fire, by nature, burns and destroys anything in its way, making it so it spreads easily and consumes everything, however this fire looked as though it wove around certain areas, hitting only a select number of different areas in what appeared to be a controlled design.

"The hell…?"  
This was no natural fire, that much Kanda was certain as he warily stepped over the piles of ash in his way. Instead it was being controlled by something…

Or rather, someone…

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL**

(Days later)

"Going out again, eh?"  
The red head stated idly as he lounged back in the pleasure's bed, having no trouble acting as though he owned the room, which was really not the case, "You've been visiting those human friends of yours a lot lately."

Ignoring the younger man making himself comfortable in his room, Tyki merely sighed and closed the drawer he was rummaging through, a fair of worn jeans, suspenders and a white shirt in his arms,

"Yes, well I plan on taking advantage of all the free time the Earl has gifted us with lately. Not all of us are content with reading all day."  
Gold eyes glanced pointedly at the red head, who merely returned the look with a sheepish grin. While the taller of the two certainly did enjoy reading a good book he didn't seem to harbor the same fascination the Bookman junior did. After only a few hours the Portuguese man was at the limit of his attention span with the parchment whereas the red head was usually just getting started.

"Yeah, I guess, but I only really read that long 'cause the panda insists on it." Lavi shrugged nonchalantly, falling to lay completely back on the soft bed again, "Where are you going this time?"  
"I believe I'm meeting them at a train station." The pleasure replied, shedding his formal attire for the hobo clothes his white persona seemed to favor, "There's a new mining town that they want to check out."

"You know, I never took you to be the type willing to get down and dirty." Lavi teased softly, a jeering grin on his face as he stared at the ceiling, granting the other male privacy as he changed, "Mr. I'm-too-good-for-everyone noble."  
"Come now, Red, you know as well as I do that that is merely a role I have to portray to keep the Earl happy."

"But you seem to like it well enough. Even now you're talking like you actually have an education."  
The black haired Noah merely rolled his eyes and slipped his glasses on, not finding any real reason to rise to the red head's teasing remarks. Honestly, that kid was too childish sometimes.

"Will you be coming with me this time?"  
"Huh?" Pulling himself back up into a sitting position on the bed, Lavi looked at the other male in barely contained surprise, "Yeah, I think I will. There's not too much to around here but fight with the old panda. I finished all my work with him and the earl, so I think it's safe to disappear for a day or so. Not like he'd even notice anyway…"  
Opting to tune out the red head's nonsensical rambling, Tyki nodded in acceptance at the other male's response,

"Then let's go."

"Wait!"

The youngest of the Noah jumped up from the bed and glanced down at his outfit, a look of uncertainty crossing his gray face,

"Shouldn't I change into something more homeless like and ugly like yours?"

The pleasure hummed softly in thought at the other's question before smirking slightly, his golden eyes slowly studying the others form in amusement before gracefully exiting the room,

"No, actually I believe the clothes you are wearing will do just fine for that role."  
"Aw, that's mean, Birth mark!"

DGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGM

The red head muttered incoherently to himself as he quickly flittered around his room, gathering the belongings he required for the few days he was planning on inhabiting the human world with Tyki, silently cursing the other Noah for being so impatient. For one reason or another the pleasure didn't seem to understand the fact that the Bookman in training needed at least a change of clothes if he was going to be away from the manor for a duration of time that exceeded twenty four hours.

But, then again, he couldn't really blame the other Noah for being so impatient to leave. Lavi had only been a part of the Noah clan for around half a year, however even he knew how little free time the apostles really had, especially recently.

The Portuguese man was no doubt just eager to escape his duties for a little while and pay the role of the little hobo, a role that he actually seemed to really enjoy and Lavi had to admit that he did too.

When he had first endured the sudden transitioning of becoming a Noah the red head and Bookman had been allowed to take refugee under the Earl, automatically being accepted as one of them, much to the Bookman to be's surprise. The Millennium Earl, being a complete and utter stranger to the Bookman's with a reputation to make any normal human tremble, had absolutely no qualms with allowing the two men to live with the rest of his so called 'family'. He even went so far as to let the two continue recording history, that is, under one condition.

Lavi had to embrace his Noah side and accept any and all missions given to him by the Earl.

Of course the red head didn't really have much of a choice but to accept the terms he was given, seeing as he was now a Noah regardless of whether he wished to be or not. In the end he had obviously accepted the terms as well as promised the Panda that he wouldn't let his mind get corrupted by the Noah fighting for control within him.

Because that was something he could easily control.

Sighing, Lavi shoved a few pairs of clothes into his bag (he wasn't certain how long they would be staying this time), a brush, a toothbrush, an extra headband and an extra eyepatch before slinging it over his shoulder. He actually was looking forward to seeing the Portuguese's companions again, if for no other reason than they were interesting as far as humans go.

When the ginger had first been taken in by the Noah Family the Earl had practically dumped the confused and troubled boy on Tyki, more or less leaving it to the man to ensure that Lavi not only received a explanation as to what was going on but also learn how to control his so called 'black' and 'white' sides.

Needless to say Tyki had been less than pleased by the baby sitting gig he was cohered into, yet he obeyed his orders nonetheless. He was actually rather pleasant about it as well, showing patience to the confused boy of only 17. The pleasure had helped him through the initial rough transaction, with the help of Road, and even became, dare Lavi say it, close to the younger man.

Close enough that within two months of his stay the elder of the two had allowed the red head to come with him to meet his human friends. The meeting had been… interesting, to say the least. But, just like in the Noah Clan, he had been readily accepted by the travelers.

Lavi couldn't help but smile wryly at the memory, an amused chuckle escaping from his lips as he gave the large red and black themed room one last glance before exiting the room, closing the door with a soft click.

Maybe being a Noah wasn't as drastic as he had originally feared it would be.

"Are you ready yet, Red?"

Glancing up from his own inner monologue, the ginger stared blankly at the pleasure leaning impatiently on the wall across from him before grinning slightly,

"Yeah, now I am, birth mark."  
The pleasure's mouth twitched downward slightly at the nickname, however he didn't comment on it. Instead he nodded and pushed off the wall, beginning to walk down the hall.

Quickening his pace slightly, Lavi caught up with the now white form of Tyki, adjusting his bag to sit comfortably on his shoulder.

"You know, you created quite the mess of things on the mission a few days ago." Tyki stated idly, flipping his large glasses down over his eyes before fetching a cigarette out of his old pants, "Having trouble controlling your abilities?"

"You could say that…" The red head muttered sheepishly, refusing to meet the others glasses shielded gaze, "Guess I just got carried away practicing and all…"  
The pleasure smirked slightly at the response before lighting the cigarette now resting in the corner of his mouth, inhaling deeply from the stick before turning his head to the side and emitting a small puff of smoke, "Is that so? Enjoying your little abilities that much?"

His voice came out as a low, mocking purr and the red head merely rolled his uncovered eye,

"Ah, shut it, mole. You try controlling that damned fire serpent; it's god damn stubborn."  
"Hm… That reminds me of someone else I know."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, it's one of my most redeeming qualities." Lavi grinned, easily meeting the other's playful tone with one of his own, "But it's listening a little better, I guess. The others are a bit easier to control…"

Tyki nodded slightly drawing his cancer stick up to his mouth once more,

"The Earl wants you to learn all of the judgements soon. He thinks it'd be useful, especially powered by dark matter."  
"I know, I'm workin' on it." He shrugged and folded his arms behind his head, idly fingering the red locks on the back of his head, "I wanna figure this shit out too, ya know?"

He grinned brightly at the man walking beside him and Tyki couldn't help but stare at the other for a moment, confused, before offering the boy a small smile.

 _That boy…_ The pleasure thought to himself, his gaze lingering on the red head for another moment he took another drag of his cigarette and left the house, _He's always so cheerful… It'd be a real shame when his inner Noah gets rowdy… The Noah of memories isn't a very pleasant fellow, even by Noah means…_

 **TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL  
As I'm sure you all have already gathered, this is an AU in which Lavi is a Noah, (IE the Noah of Memories). It is because of that that he and Bookman were able to join the Noah side and record history from there, thus making it so he does not join the Order. **

**Another thing, when I mentioned the fire above, I was referring to the special abilities Lavi has in the show, however in this case it is powered by his dark matter instead of his innocence. I'm pretty sure you know that already, but I just wanted to make sure that that was clue.**

 **Also, this is a Tyki X Lavi story, so expect that as well as the other exorcists because they were also be a big part of this story. There will be also be a one-sided Kanda X Lavi edge to this story that will be brought to light and developed in later chapters.**

 **The details leading up to this part will be examined throughout the story for anyone who is wondering just what the heck lead up to this ^.^ I just enjoy starting stories from this point. Don't ask me why, I just do. :D**

 **Also this story starts up around the time that Allen joined the order, making it so the Bookman joined the Noah about a year and half later than they joined the Order in the show, just so you know.  
Anywho, I think this has addressed any possible questions concerning just what the heck is going on in this story ^.^ Hopefully it makes sense, however I am somewhat new to the fandom, so forgive me if they seem a bit OOC at the moment. I'm slowly starting to understand each character to the point where I can accurately characterize them.**

 **Until next time!  
~ BeautifulWonderland.**


	2. Chapter 2: Train rides and poker cheats

Chapter 2:

 ** _This chapter skips ahead a few hours and, according to the anime, takes place right after Krory was found and convinced to join the Order. Hopefully this skipping around isn't too confusing for you all._**

 _ **Also, Momo and Clark are the names of Tyki's human friends, however I couldn't exactly find the names of which was which anywhere, so I just kind of guessed. As far as this story is concerned Momo is the one with the beanie and Clark is the one with the short brown hair. I'm not sure if that helps at all.**_

"How long is this ride gonna take?" Momo complained, his pale face scrunching up into a frown as he leaned against one of the cargo boxes surrounding them, "This place is boring as hell."

"Well what do ya expect?" Clark snickered, one hand waving the other off in a dismissive manner as his eyes focused on the cards in his hands, "These were the best spots we could get, so stop your yapping, would ya?"

The beanie wearing man snickered at his friend's response, his own gaze flickering down to the pile of downturned cards that had originally belonged to him before he decided they sucked and folded for that round.

"If you're so bored how about you play instead of wussing out every time?" Tyki inquired playfully, his brown eyes flashing mischievously behind his glasses as he grinned down at his own hand, "Call."

Wordlessly the two men left in the round laid out their cards, one with a devious smirk and the other with a look of complete bewilderment,

"What the hell, Tyki? How did you get _another_ Royal Flush?!" The man with the short brown hair complained, tching in agitation as he was met with a small chuckle before the aforementioned man scooped up his cards carefully.

"It would seem as though I was just lucky today."

"Lucky my ass. You're cheating again, aren't you?"

The question was met with yet another amused chuckle as his sole reply. Instead the questioned man turned his focus to the red head lounging on a box beside him,

"Come on, why don't you play, Lavi?"  
"Please, you know I suck at that game." Lavi snorted, returning the other man's grin with a simper of his own, "That and I know for a fact that you're cheating."  
"You know, that's a pretty big accusation you two are putting against me." The Pleasure mused, narrowing his eyes at the other boy in amusement, however the action remained unnoticed behind his large glasses, "I'm hurt that you both think so little of me."

"Whatever…" Clark huffed, crossing his arms as he settled with merely glaring at the unshaken man beside him, "You always win anyway. This game is getting boring…"

"Ah, what sore losers." The Noah chided teasingly as he absentmindedly shuffled the cards in his hands, "Then I take it you three have other ideas of how to pass the time?"

"Eh…"

Lavi shrugged and the other two merely exchanged a glance before remaining silent, answering the other's question indirectly. Currently they were all on their way to a mining town a ways away in hopes of finding temporary jobs, leaving them with a cargo section all to themselves and no real source of entertainment.

Lavi smiled slightly as he watched the Pleasure deal out another hand of cards to each of them, not surprised in the slightest when the two men who had just been complaining about the game readily accepted the decks, obviously finding the game at least somewhat more amusing than staring aimlessly at boxes. Then again, the red head couldn't really blame them as he too finally succumbed to the temptation and picked up his hand. Personally he wasn't too fond of the game seeing as it was a game of luck and infidelity instead of strategy and thinking, making it so it didn't interest him much, although he did play it from time to time when Tyki was especially bored.

As the game began the ginger unsurprisingly found himself with yet another unsavory hand –no pairs and a bunch of random numbers, nothing he really could do anything with. He hummed inaudibly to himself and opted to continue the game despite his worthless deck, after all, it wasn't as though they were really playing for anything at the moment, seeing as in this persona both he and Tyki were poor as were the companions they traveled with. Instead they took to just playing for the sake of winning, though Lavi couldn't actually remember the last time he had won a hand. Tyki was just too good at cheating and getting away with it, the Noah of Memories mused as he laid down two cards before replacing them with two others.

 _Finally, a pair. I might be able to make something of this…_

Making certain to remain emotionless, the red head stayed silent as the others took their turns. Luckily for the red head the other two sucked almost as badly as he did at cards, so he at least had a chance not to outright come in last place.

"God damn it…" Clark muttered in obvious displeasure as he hastily laid his cards face down, folding for that round, "I don't know how you manage it Tyki, but you always give me the absolute worst cards!"

"Ah? That's just the luck of the draw, Clark." The Pleasure smirked, leering at his friend from behind his spectacles, "Maybe you should-…"

Tyki was cut off at the sound of the door to their little compartment opening, causing all four men present in the room to turn around and look at the tall man who had just entered.

Almost immediately two sets of eyes narrowed as the familiar sensation of nearby Innocence flooded the small storage room, automatically setting both Noah's on guard.

 _An exorcist…_ Lavi thought idly to himself, his expression unwavering as he willed himself not to react, _He couldn't know that there were Noahs here… Could he?_

From the floor below the box he was sitting on the red head could feel Tyki stiffen slightly, seemingly also well aware of the fact that the mystery man was an exorcist.

"O-Oh! I am terribly sorry to interrupt you, gentlemen." The tall, almost vampire looking man quickly stuttered as he took in the scene before him. It seemed as though in his curiosity driven excursion he had accidentally come across a cargo room, – that is, if the numerous boxes lining the place were any hint- where several men were gathered around playing some type of game with a stack of cards, "I'm afraid I got a little carried away, I am truly sorry!"

Lavi blinked, honestly taken aback by the Exorcist's demeanor.

 _What the… The man looks like he just stepped right out of a freaking Dracula novel yet he's acting so… Timid and nervous… Nothing like how an exorcist usually acts._

No Exorcists were that timid and apologetic. They were relentless killing machines that wanted to end the Earl's plans in the name of their so called 'god', but Lavi knew better than that. The exorcists were the ones against the beloved deities whilst the Noahs were the ones of God's side, the side of righteousness, not that he cared, really. Either way he didn't believe in a god, but that didn't stop him from disliking the individuals that spent their lives attempting to slaughter his kind.

But then again, he was a Bookman… He wasn't supposed to hold prejudice against either side…

"Don't worry about it." Tyki all but purred, thankfully breaking the red head out of his thoughts before they could take a sour turn, "Say, why don't you join us? We're playing poker, I take it you know how to play?"

Four sets of eyes immediately turned to regard the exorcist, imploring expressions on all of their faces as they awaited an answer.

"W-Well, yes, I have… I mean, I know how to play, but I really wouldn't want to intrude…" The white banged man quickly spluttered, a light blush shading his cheeks at the low, almost seductive tone the Noah regarded him with, "And Allen and Kanda already told me not to talk to people I don't know…"  
 _Allen and Kanda…? They must be exorcists too…_ Lavi figured, a mischievous grin appearing on his face as he sauntered off his box and walked towards the nervous vampire looking man, _this could be fun…_

"Ah, come on, one little game won't hurt ya!" The ginger persuaded, leaning up to awkwardly drape his arm across the significantly larger man's shoulders, causing him to haunch slightly in the hold, "Besides, you aren't intruding, we love meeting new people on our travels! Isn't that right, guys?"

The Memory Noah glanced behind him at the men who currently sat just as they had been before, staring at the red head in confusion before realization seemed to dawn on them and they all shared a manipulative leer.

"Of course." Tyki agreed, soundlessly collecting the cards before shuffling them once more, preparing for the round that was to come, "We always enjoy playing with new people."

"W-Well, I don't know…" The exorcist mumbled, blushing once more at the close proximity between himself and the admitably cute red haired stranger, "I guess one game won't hurt…"

"That's the spirit!" Lavi cheered, grinning at the stranger before yanking him over to sit beside the box he had been previously sitting on, "So, vampire- man, what's your name?"

The aforementioned man glanced around warily once more, seeming to silently debate with himself over a matter that Lavi could only guess at before his slight frown was replaced with a smile.

"My name is Arystar Krory." He smiled genuinely, his attitude seeming to take a complete 180 from the frowning and untrusting man that he had previously seemed to be, "What are all your names?"

 _Strange man…_

"My name's Lavi, the man over there with the goofy glasses is Tyki, the one with the silly hat is Momo, the blonde kid sleeping in the corner over there is Eeze and the one with the bad haircut looking all gloomy over there is Clark. Nice to meet you, Krorykins!" Lavi finished, ignoring the complaints and glares he received from the others thanks to his less than polite descriptions.

"Krorykins?" Krory repeated, seemingly baffled by the sudden nickname, "Um, it's, uh, nice to meet you all too…"

The recently joined exorcist couldn't help but stare incredulously at the ginger sitting beside him, a strange mixture of happiness and unease filling him as he studied the boy further.

His fiery red hair was pulled up by a green bandana wrapping around his forehead, a black eye patch shielded his no doubt green right eye from view and he wore a simple green shirt and white pants with black boots to complete the attire. He looked like a pretty normal guy and the vampire felt as though he could trust the other despite them having only met moments ago, yet there was also something about him that set him on edge…

Like the fact that when he looked into the single apparent green eye he could see nothing but his reflection. There was no emotion, no hidden message, no anything. It was just like a mirror; blank and projecting its surroundings.

It was… Strange, to say the least.

However he quickly pushed the thought aside, mentally chiding himself for going on about how the nice man beside him looked. After all, he had no place to judge others for their strange features when he himself looked almost identical to that of a stereotypical monster. He personally despised it when others judged him by his appearance and he was not about to become a hypocrite.

Ending his thoughts with that last decision, Krory smiled once more and looked down at the cards he was dealt, feeling his sense of unease beginning to drift away. He was just being silly, there was nothing wrong with these guys.

Lavi, on the other hand, felt his unease expand further as he discretely studied the exorcist now playing cards beside him. Apparently he was not alone on this train if his previous words had been any hint, making it so there was a high probability that there were currently three exorcists if not more riding this very train at the moment.

That, of course, didn't deter the red head at all. Maybe if he had been alone with three of the Black Order's fighters he would have been concerned, but not when both he and Tyki were there. Between the two of them, he had no doubts that they could easily take down the so called apostles of god.

That aside, he figured that this would be a great chance to get a better idea of just what exorcists were like. Since he was relatively new to the Noah Clan and was still unable to tap into all his newly acquired skills accurately he was yet to be sent out on any assassination missions or really any mission that would result in him coming into contact with an exorcist, which he was actually rather bummed about. He didn't necessarily want to kill the Black Order members, but he did want to learn about the building itself and what it was like to be an exorcist.

Perhaps he would get the chance to learn more about the Order through this guy…

"Why don't we make this game a little more interesting?" Tyki inquired, a sly smirk curling his lips as he looked pointedly at the vampire, who was still smiling happily. They had so far played a total of three rounds, all of which Krory had been the victor. As such it was obvious that the exorcist was becoming more confident about the game and his abilities- or rather luck-, just as they were hoping.

"Interesting?" Krorykins reiterated, a slightly confused expression crossing his face, momentarily reminding the red head of a confused little boy, "How so?"

"Let's make this a game of strip poker." The Pleasure purred, already shuffling the cards, "Each round the loser has to remove an article of clothing and give it permanently to the other person. Sound fun?"

Lavi couldn't help but stifle a snicker at the Noah's antics, knowing full well that he was planning on taking the poor Exorcist for everything he was worth. After all, he was bound to have something valuable on him.

The man in question seemed to pause at the proposal, a look of uncertainty crossing his face as he turned his gaze from the bespectacled man to the red head sitting on the floor beside him who held a look of disinterest on his face as he leaned against a nearby box.

"I'm… Not sure…" He admitted, a faint blush forming on his cheeks and he sent a silent plea for help to the eyepatch wearing boy who Krory had deemed to be the more friendly and reasonable of the group, "I.. I, erm, have never played anything so..." A series of words formed in the vampire's mind, humiliating, exposing, embarrassing, but he finally settled with, "personal…"

This was one big, new experience for the once castle ridden man and, while he was more than open to trying new things, he just wasn't sure if he was willing to do something this foreign to him.

Seeming to notice the unease shifting into the white and black haired man, Tyki lowered his glasses slightly to the side, making it so the corner of one of his eyes would be visible to the ginger. He waited a few moments for Lavi to shift his gaze off of the window and onto him before flickering one brown eye from the stranger and back to the ginger, silently edging him to talk the exorcist into playing.

Lavi, being both closer in age to the apparently early twenties years old man and the self-proclaimed nicest of them, quickly understood the request. Scamming unknowing individuals out of their money and clothes was hardly a new occurrence for the Noah's, after all.

"Don't worry, we're all guys here, and besides, we won't make ya take off your underwear if being naked is what is scaring ya. It's just a game, don't you wanna have some fun, Krorykins?"

Lavi offered the uncertain male a prize winning grin, making sure to add the little nickname on the end to make the man feel at least a smidge more comfortable with him.

"Well…" Meeting one green eye with both of his, the vampire seemed to finally relent, "Alright... I'll play." He offered the strangers an additional smile to assure them that he was thankful for their company and willingness to entertain him.

"Great!" The red head grinned, giving the vampire looking man an affectionate pat on the head before glancing over at Tyki, who seemed to be holding back a simper of his own, "Go ahead and deal'em, glasses."

It didn't take Krory long to realize that maybe agreeing to play under the pretense that he was going to win as he had been earlier wasn't as smart an idea as he believed it to be. Instead he found himself losing virtually every hand with Tyki somehow managing to pull a great hand out of thin air. It baffled the exorcist, yet he continued to play, figuring that he had to win at one point.

But he didn't. First he lost his coat, his shoes went soon after, and his socks were barely a memory now as was his shirt. He must really be bad at the game…

Lavi, opting to take pity on the now scantily clad exorcist –by that point he only had a pair of pants, a belt and hopefully underwear to his name-, folded from the game and instead moved to lean against a box just behind where Tyki was sitting. After receiving several insults from his friends for being a 'wuss' and quitting the game continued and Lavi watched in amusement as Tyki cheated the pants and belt off of the now obviously blushing exorcist.

Things weren't going to last long now.

As it was, Tyki, Momo and Clark were all completely dressed and on their last round with the thoroughly embarrassed exorcist. The three miners were grinning from ear to ear at the fact that they had, thus far, literally beaten the pants off of the poor loser that managed to get himself caught up with them. The round was just about up with Tyki the no doubt winner when the game was interrupted by the sound of the door to their little area being opened.

Immediately five sets of eyes transferred from the unfair game of cards to the doorway, which now housed a short white haired boy and a taller, long haired, scowling male standing behind him –two more exorcists, he noted absentmindedly as his gaze met the taller male's irritated one.

"Sorry, this area is currently off limits to little boys." Tyki dismissed immediately, seemingly not daunted in the slightest by the appearance of two more exorcists. These two, unlike the first, wore the customary black order uniforms which made identifying them much simpler.

"Krory? What are you doing here?" The white haired teenager questioned, ignoring the bespectacled male's words, "We've been looking all over for you."

"Oh, I'm sorry to make you worry." The vampire apologized sheepishly, his face growing a brighter red at his current state of undress, "I got a little distracted and ended up playing a card game with these gentlemen…"

"What the hell are you doing, idiot?" The taller of the two growled gruffly, his dark eyes shifting from the red head he had been engaging in a sort of staring contest with before landing harshly on Krory, "How many damn times do we have to tell you not to interact with strangers?"

The red head raised an eyebrow at the irritated male, amused when he saw both the white haired boy and the Dracula look alike shiver outwardly at the hostile tone.

"Calm down already, BaKanda." Allen scolded, tilting his head to glare over his shoulder at the grouchy male.

"Shut up, Beansprout."

Shoving the smaller boy aside, the exorcist named Kanda pushed into the room, his arms crossed as he glared down at the cowering boxer clad male.

"Get up and put some clothes on."  
The vampire nodded swiftly, seemingly terrified of the male-not that Lavi could blame him- and made a move to gather his discarded clothes when a hand got to them instead. Confused, Krory looked up to see the glasses wearing stranger grinning maliciously down at him, a finger held up in the air shaking side to side,

"Ah, uh, uh, not so fast vamp. We won these fair and square in the game."

Krory's eyes widened at the words,

"But… But I-…"

His incoherent stuttering was cut short by a hand on his shoulder coaxing him to silence. Surprised by the sudden contact, Krory glanced up to see the white haired boy staring down at him, a reassuring smile on his face,

"Don't worry, Krory, I'll win your stuff back for you."

"Hm?" Tyki hummed, a slight smirk curling his lips as he lit another cigarette, pausing to inhale deeply from it before breathing out a small cloud of smoke, "And just what makes you think that a brat like you can win against us? Beat it boy, this is a game meant for adults."

The boy with the strange red tattoo's smile didn't waver in the slightest at the insult. Instead it seemed to only grow wider as he switched his gaze from the three men sitting on the floor to the red head lounging on a nearby box, whom seemed amused by the show,

"Your friend over there can't be much older than me and he's here." The boy pointed out innocently, "Won't you let me play?"

The red head couldn't help but snicker softly at the albino's statement, his one uncovered green eye closing,

"Nice try kid, but I'm 18; a technical adult. This place really isn't meant for kids like you two."

His last sentence was uttered playfully, as though he was just challenging the two exorcists to fight with him.

Luckily for the playful ginger his jests were met with a response, this time from the definitely pissed off Japanese man.

"Shut it, idiot, I'm eighteen too. I'm not a damn kid."

Lavi had to admit that he was amused by that statement and he opened his eye once more, not surprised to find the scowling samurai now only feet from him, a challenging glint in the long haired man's eyes.

"Oh, my bad, _BaKanda._ " Lavi jeered, using the nickname he recalled the white haired boy had used earlier.

"Don't call me that, idiot." He growled, his gaze meeting the grinning redhead's unwaveringly.

What an interesting Exorcist.

"Anyway…" Allen cleared his throat, hoping to prevent Kanda from murdering an innocent civilian who didn't seem to know when his life was in danger, "How about it? Will you let me play?"

Before a response could be given the boy removed the exorcist jacket he was wearing and held it out to the poker players,

"Here, this jacket is lined with real silver. I'll use this as my wager."

The oldest three of the travelers shared a measured glance at the question and bribe for a few moments before the beanie wearing man finally relented, shrugging his shoulders slightly,

"Eh, it's fine with me. The kid's gotta learn about life somehow anyway."

Clark nodded his silent agreement and Tyki merely sighed, removing the cigarette from the corner of his mouth,

"Yeah, alright, sit down then, kid. Ya know how to play?" He was met with a nod, "Good."

The pleasure shuffled his deck again, preparing it for the next game as his gaze drifted to the red head still staring intently at the long haired male, who seemed to want nothing more than to murder the cheerful ginger,

"Lavi…" Brown eyes hidden behind large glasses narrowed his eyes discretely at the close proximity between the stranger and his fellow Noah before continuing, "Care to join us again?"

"Nah, I think I'll have to sit out again this round. I suck at card games." He chuckled softly, walking away from the deadly samurai to instead sit back down on the box beside where the Noah sat on the floor.

Tyki nodded slightly at the response, the smirk reappearing on his lips at the irritated look the long haired man had due to Lavi all but brushing him off,

"How about you, princess? Wanna play?"

"Don't fucking call me that." Kanda snarled, moving to lean against the wall the red head had previously been occupying, "I have better things to do than waste my time with you bums."

"Suit yourself."  
Without another word the game began, surprising Lavi by how swiftly the white haired male won the first round.

At first the red head at simply placed it as beginner's luck, however that theory was swiftly shot as the boy won the next two rounds, resulting in Tyki, Clark and Momo being left in nothing more than their pants, socks and undergarments.

Oh yes, this was definitely an interesting boy.

As the next round began the Noah of memories discretely shifted so he was standing a little ways from the tattooed boy, unsurprised and actually rather entertained as he watched the boy win yet another round by cheating. Hell, this kid was something if he managed to make a Noah –especially Tyki- strip down to his underwear during a game of poker.

"Damn kid…" Tyki mumbled as he begrudedly kicked off his pants, Momo and Clark following his lead and the red head couldn't stifle a soft chuckle fast enough, thus earning a glare from the now half nude pleasure.

Krory seemed fascinated as the white haired boy won back his belongings, whilst the samurai seemed confused and angry, but then again it seemed as though that particular exorcist was always in a bad mood.

Another game quickly followed the last and Kanda couldn't take his eyes off of the cards, inwardly bewildered by how the hell the beansprout was managing to win every round. After all, he was considered one of the unluckiest people in the order, so just how the hell was he winning so many games?

His black eyes closed before he crossed his arms and scoffed, muttering under his breath,

"How is the damn beansprout winning…?"

"Well, that'd be 'cause he's cheatin'."

The voice that replied to his rhetorical question resounded from beside him, causing the exorcist to swiftly reopen his eyes and turn towards the red head now standing beside him defensively. He hadn't even heard the man come close to him!

The ginger, seemingly unperturbed by the death glare he was now receiving, glanced away from the other male to instead regard the game going on, a leisurely smile on his face,

"Just look at his movements that kid knows exactly what he's doing. I gotta say, I'm impressed. I've never met someone who can out cheat Tyrone."

Kanda studied the red head for another moment before deeming him as no threat and returned to leaning boredly against the wall, his gaze shifting to see just what he was talking about.

"So then the idiot with the glasses is cheating too?"

"Yeah. The other two are tryin' ta cheat, but they're no good at it, so they usually rely on Tyki to beat any tricky opponents. Looks like your friend there is too good for even him."

"Che, whatever, stupid rabbit."  
Lavi blinked and glanced over at the Japanese man, surprised by the sudden and rather random nickname.

"Huh? Rabbit?"

"You're too god damn cheerful." Was the only explanation the long haired male gave, not willing to inform the other that his name 'Lavi' in Japanese was called Rabi, like the English word for rabbit. That would imply that he actually gave some thought as to the strange man standing beside them like they were best friends.

"Ya know, you're a strange man, Kanda." Lavi laughed good naturedly, folding his hands behind his head.

"Whatever."

Before the red head could antagonize the slightly shorter man further the exorcist moved forward, watching as yet another round passed, resulting in Allen's victory.

"Aren't you done yet, Beansprout?" He huffed, not bothering to acknowledge the three underwear clad elder men sitting in front of him, "This god damn rabbit won't stop talking."

"Aw, that's mean Kanda-Chan." Lavi pouted, remembering what the white haired male had called his partner, "And here I thought we were having a great conversation…"

Lavi just barely managed to dodge a sword sent at him from the long haired male, feeling a bead of sweat fall down his temple at just how close his strike had come. Damn exorcists…

"Annoying the public again, Red?" Tyki teased, his head tilted in the red head's direction the only hint that the pleasure was now looking at him.

"At least I'm not almost naked." He scoffed back, grinning at the scantily clad forms of his companions as he slowly backed away from the still armed, volatile man, "What, lost your touch already, old man?"

"It's the boy's fault for cheating."

"Because you definitely weren't."

"That's not important."  
"I swear I'm surrounded by idiots." Kanda grumbled, placing his innocence back into its case before leveling his eyes back on the smiling white haired male.

"Anyone want to play another round?" The boy asked innocently, wielding the deck of cards in the air to emphasize the question, causing the three gambling men to sweat drop.

Lavi just laughed.

TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL

The loud, shrill sound of a train whistle flooded the train station as the Noahs and their human companions exited the train, only one clad in something other than their underwear.

"We've arrived at Birdmine station! We've arrived at Birdmine station!" The announcer called and Lavi just grinned brighter as he glanced over at Tyki, who looked as though he was already freezing in the cool winter air.

They had just moved to stand on the side of the temporarily still train when a familiar, childish voice called out to them.

The white haired boy who managed to cheat the three men out of their clothes and dignity was waving them over from an open window, holding a few bags out to them,

"Since I won back my friends things I really don't need these." He explained, that innocent smile of his contrasting significantly with the unhappy scowl that seemed permanently plastered on his friend's face, who was standing beside him at the window, "You guys look pretty cold, you might want to put something on."

Tyki stared at the man for a moment before snickering and removing the cigarette from his mouth, settling with holding it cautiously between two fingers as he and the two other half nude males scoffed at the boy,

"Look kid, we don't need your pity."

The boy merely blinked at the other's words, slightly amused at how they contrasted so greatly with their actions. All three men were already leaning over, their hands claiming the items that they had very nearly lost to the cheater.

"Well explain this." Allen chuckled, happily handing the suitcases back to their rightful owners.

"Oh, yeah…"

The freezing travelers wasted no time in redressing, leaving Lavi and Eeze to laugh at their hasty scrambling for warmth. Unlike the other three the red head was smart enough when to know to cut his losses when it came to gambling, especially since he never was very good at it and Eeze, well, Eeze was still much too young to get into that bad habit just yet.

The Noah of Memories watched as his companions pulled back on their clothing, only pulling his gaze away at the feeling of eyes burning a hole in the back of his head.

Curiously, Lavi turned back towards the window to find three sets of eyes watching him, all belonging to the exorcists who still hung by the window.

One by one he met each of their gazes, just barely managing to suppress a wince as their memories played in the back of his head, however he quickly muted them, not wanting to pry into the privacy of the men who had been at least somewhat pleasant to them. Unfortunately he was a bit too late in blocking out the memories for he managed to gain at least some knowledge about the traveling exorcists. Luckily it was nothing too personal.

He learned that the cheating boy A, as Tyki labeled him, was named Allen Walker, the apprentice of Cross and was a parasitic type exorcist. The other male who constantly looked constipated was named Yuu Kanda –A funny first name that he figured would be a great way to counter the other's rabbit insult- and he wielded a sword named Mugen for his weapon – which he had already had the displeasure of meeting several times during the card game. Lastly, the vampire looking male who they had originally managed to persuade to play with them was named Arystar Krory –though that was also nothing new, seeing as he had openly given them his name when they first met- and he was also a parasitic type exorcist, however his ability was to drink the blood of akuma. He just barely managed to suppress a shiver at that thought, amusing the idea of just what akumas tasted like for a moment before swiftly erasing it with a 'I don't even want to know'.

"You know, it's not too polite to stare beansprout." He kidded softly, grinning at the white haired boy who blushed for a moment before frowning slightly, no doubt at the nickname.

"Don't call me that."  
"Ah, but you let the constipated man over there call you that." He complained childishly, giving himself a mental pat on the back for the death glare to managed to pry from the stone cold exorcist, "besides, he himself said that we were the same age, so that means I can call ya that too."

The parasitic arm exorcist still didn't seem happy with that response, although he seemed to allow it to pass as he instead took to studying the red head again,

"Have I seen you somewhere before?" He inquired, almost certain that he had seen the other somewhere before in the past, he just couldn't quite recall when.

"Nah, can't say you have. I would think I would remember seeing a kid with the hair of an elderly man."

"I guess…"

 _You've never seen me before…_ He mused to himself, one green eye lingering on the tattooed male, _But I can guarantee you that we'll meet again, exorcist. Or rather, the fourteenth._

As the Noah of Memories Lavi was able to see things that others were not and that included the ability to know the entirety of the past of the Noah's, including the part in time where the fourteenth betrayed the earl. He was, after all, the tangible host of all of Noah's personal memories, making it so he could recall everything Noah himself saw, thought and wanted. That also meant that he could alter people's memories at will, taking out what he wanted and even crafting an entirely new scene to fill the empty void.

It was an invasive ability that the Earl seemed rather fond of for some reason.

"Well kid, you saved us." Tyki finally said, cutting the red head from his own inner thoughts as he finished redressing in his ragged outfit, "I was about five minutes away from frost bite."

The train whistle sounded once more and within moments it began to move again, leaving the travelers to say their final –well, not all that final- goodbyes.

"Here, take this! Catch!" Before the train pulled away too far the Pleasure quickly removed the deck of cards from his pocket and tossed them to Allen, who easily caught them, "They're yours! Consider this a token of my thanks!"

"Will do!"

The red head grinned slightly at the sudden gesture before cupping his hands around his mouth, leaning forward to shout his own farewell,

"It was nice meeting you Krorykins, Beansprout and Yuu-chan! See ya!"

AS the train sped away Lavi could just barely make out the head of the now infuriated swordsman as he leaned out the window, brandishing his sword as he no doubt cursed at the boy in both question and irritation, but the red head wasn't certain for his voice was quickly consumed by the noise of the train.

"Heh… Interesting guys." The ginger chuckled, watching the train disappear down the tracks before turning back around to face his comrades. They had similar smiles on their faces, apparently also amused by how the events of the day played out.

"Well I'll be darned. We would've thought that a kid dressed up in such nice clothing would be such a heartless cheat." Clark chuckled, staring off down where the train once was.

Momo laughed in agreement, sending a side long glance to Clark,

"He was a pro; he had us conned all the way. Kids these days."

"Looks like Tyki has finally met his match." Lavi jeered playfully, gently ruffling Eeze's hair as the boy laughed at his comment, "I've never seen someone beat you that bad."  
"Yeah…" The bespectacled man grinned crookedly. He actually wasn't as annoyed as he thought he would be by that fact.

"Anyway, Lavi, Tyki, Eeze, come on. If we leave now we might be able to weasel come free food out of that factory owner." Momo pointed out as he turned to walk away from the tracks.

"Yeah, sounds good. I'm starved." The black haired male agreed, about to turn around and join his friends when the sound of a phone ringing caught his attention.

Wordlessly he walked over and answered it, bringing the receiver up to his ear for a moment before sighing softly and hanging back up.

"Looks like Lavi and I are gonna have to decline that offer after all."

"What? Do you guys have another secret job?" Clark complained, "I was hoping you were done with that."

"Heh, afraid not. We'll catch up with you again later, alright?"  
Begrudedly the two men and children agreed, bidding the two men goodbye before walking off in the direction of the factory.

It was only once the Red Head was certain the others were out of hearing distance that he turned to face the pleasure, a curious look on his face,

"What's up, Tyki?"

"The Earl called another Family dinner." He replied nonchalantly as he carefully dropped his cigarette onto the floor, "Come on, he's waiting not far ahead."  
The Noah of memories nodded slightly and began walking with the pleasure, silence filling the air before Tyki broke it again, his hands slipping into his pockets as he looked down at the red head,

"So, rabbit, huh?" He smirked, recalling the nickname that the Japanese exorcist had used on the ginger earlier.

Lavi groaned good naturedly and shrugged his shoulders,

"Hell if I know. Yuu was strange."  
"Yuu?" The pleasure repeated, scratched at his head, "'Thought I heard cheating boy A call that guy Kanda or something."  
"He did. It's his last name. I kinda found out that his first name was Yuu and it seems like he doesn't like it much." He shrugged again.

"You and your nicknames…"

Lavi grinned and the older of the two couldn't help but smile. He never could stay irritated or exasperated at the other for long.

Their conversation faded as the figure of a large male looming in the shadows appeared not far in front of them, signifying that the Earl was indeed waiting for them

As they approached the overhang ahead, Tyki ruffled his messy hair slightly,

"Mind If I get some grub in me first? I'm famished."

"Yeah, me too." Lavi agreed easily.

"I have no problems with that." The smiling man replied readily, his cold eyes watching the two Noahs intently.

"Good, 'cause I could eat my own foot at this point." The pleasure snickered as he and the red head made their way into the shadows of the arch.

"Just put something nice on instead of those rags the two of you have on. No one would ever let you into a five star restaurant dressed like a hobo."  
Tyki laughed as he removed his glasses and allowed them to dissolve into thin air, Lavi doing the same with his headband as he listened to the conversation in amusement. Personally he wasn't too comfortable around the Earl just yet, though he did enjoy the little conversation hobo Tyki would have with the formal Earl.

"I suppose you speak from experience then, with that weight of yours."

"I am not over weight." The Earl's voice was cold and Lavi, not for the first time, wondered just how Tyki could so leisurely make fun of the creator like that.

As they walked further into the shadows the Noah's began their subtle change, both their skin shifting from a pale color to instead a dark gray. Within seconds the pleasure's grubby hobo clothes disappear, an expensive, form fitting suit taking its place, a sight that the ginger was always amused by. It always amazed him by how drastically the man's appearance could change.

His own clothes shifted from the almost pirate looking clothes he was wearing into a mid-thigh length Black coat with a fiery red undershirt. His boots, like the pleasure, changed into dress shoes and his white pants morphed into tight black pants. His red hair framed his face attractively and his eyepatch changed from the almost gauze looking fabric that he wore as a hobo to a black leather patch. Since he was put under Tyki's direct care from the get go of being a Noah he had really no choice but to adapt to the male's usually formal fashion sense, making it so the Earl expected him to also look presentable at all times.

The earl, watching the change passively, nonchalantly tossed Tyki his typical top hat –which after numerous refusals and arguments Lavi was thankfully exempted from.

"Well, I'm so hungry even a pig's feed bag would work for me."

"If I were you I would start choosing my words more carefully."  
An elegant white gloved hand easily caught the hat before Tyki pushed his bangs from his face and put it on, a sly grin on his face as he emerged from under the shadows of the bridge, the red head following soon after.

"Got it, Earl Tyki Mikk? You too, Earl Lavi Bookman."

The pleasure smirked at the words and rested a hand on the rim of his black hat, his tuxedo clad body looking stunning in the bright light overhead.  
Blinking at his sudden thought, Lavi barely managed to hide a blush as he nodded at the Earl.

"All right. As you wish, Earl Millennium."

Tyki glanced over at the red head, amusement glinting in his gold eyes as he met the other's equally gold but not quite as amused eyes,

"Of course, Earl." Lavi finally voiced in agreement, brushing his bangs out of his good eye.

"Very good. Now then, we have a dinner to attend to."

TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL

Kanda stared irritably at the window he was sitting beside, his hands clenched tightly onto the cloth of his coat as he regarded the surroundings whizzing by with disdain. It hadn't been more than twenty minutes since the travelers had left the train, yet the Samurai's blood still boiled in barely suppressed rage at the audacity of the red headed hooligan who managed to irritate him to no end.

His teeth gritted together at the mere thought of the odd teen, who seemed to have no qualms teasing the samurai as though they were old friends. He treated him like he was a friend and that was something foreign to the long haired male, making it so he saw it to be a threat.

But it wasn't only the prospect of friendship that irritated the ill-tempered man, however he had to admit that it was a part of it. Instead what really rattled his chain was what the eye patch wearing boy had called him as the train pulled away- the beansprout and vampire had just barely managed to stop him from jumping out the window and attacking the stranger with Mugen in retaliation for the insult.

The red head had called him by his first name. The name that he didn't allow anyone to know let alone use.

But then, how the hell did he even find out about that? He was nothing more than a miner, if the clothes were any hint, and a cheat, yet he still somehow managed to figure out his true name.

How the fuck did he manage to do that?!

He had not the slightest idea and he could feel his annoyance only rise at his own incompetence.

His anger seemed to radiate off of him in palpable waves, causing the two individuals across from him to shift uneasily. Even Allen, being the more willing to annoy the long haired male out of him and the vampire, knew when to back off and not antagonize the exorcist like he usually did.

Nervously, the white haired male glanced over at the white banged, elder man sitting still beside him. The curious vampire hadn't moved an inch since they had returned to their seats in order to appease the grumpy Kanda's threats that, if he dared to leave the god damn seat again, he would kill him with Mugen without blinking an eye. That threat, backed up with the murderous glint in his dark eyes, seemed to effectively quell Krory's desire for adventure for the time being and the tattooed youth had to admit that for that he was thankful.

While he was happy that his new friend was having so much fun exploring the land so unknown to him he had to admit that even he was growing tired of having to constantly track down the childish male and save him from whatever scam he was falling victim to. Next thing you know he'll willingly give up all his money and clothes to a little girl claiming to need to help feed her many brothers and sisters and thousand year old relative or something…

Heaving a soft sigh, Allen closed his eyes and resigned himself to a ride full of silence, fear, and anger from the still fuming Japanese man.

 **I haven't had the time to completely go back and edit this because of a so far hectic summer, so I'll probably end up going back and doing that later on. I apologize in advance for any mistakes made.**

 **Also, I kept some of the same lines from the episode in this story, but for the most part I changed it around a bit as to keep it interesting and not just rewrite that whole episode. Hopefully it is to you guys liking!**


	3. Chapter 3: The true nature of the Noah

**I only had time to reread over this once, so I hope everything makes sense :P Thank you for everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I love all one of you XD No, but seriously, thank you for reviewing, Meltedwings! Reviews help motivate me to continue writing! Also thank you to everyone who followed and reviewed. I hope you enjoy.**

 **Also, I included an OC exorcist in this chapter for plot development (it will make sense as you read). I decided to just make one up because I didn't want to kill any of the main characters, so, yeah, sorry.**

 **Warnings: OC, death, violence and Tyki being the sadist he is. c:**

Chapter 3:

Lavi liked to think of himself as a calm kind of guy. Sure he liked to tease and joke and lost his temper from time to time, but he still figured that most of the time he was pretty easy going and cool headed.

Which is why he couldn't help but briefly wonder why it was that he could feel his visible eye twitching as he gazed down at the heap of homework Road had placed in front of him, complaining about how she had too much to do it only by herself.

"But you're a Bookman, aren't you, Lavi?" Road inquired, her voice a low whine as she leaned over the table so that she was only inches from him, "That means that you know a lot about history and I need help!"

Yes, she did, Lavi had to agree on that much, considering the fact that Tyki and Jasdevi both were also attempting to do her homework, however Road didn't seem to be aware that by doing her homework they were really just writing down a series of random numbers.

"Yeah, I know all of this…" The red head admitted cautiously, knowing better than to try and fool the Noah of Dreams, "But if I do it all for ya, how will you learn it?"

The Noah of Memories couldn't help but think that he sounded an awful lot like the old man at the moment and he immediately felt like wincing at the idea.

"But Uncle Tyki and JasDevi are helping." She complained, elongating the 'ing' into yet another shrill whine, "I'll look over it!"  
"Uh…"

The red head paused for a moment, silently debating his options before begrudedly doing as he was asked and took the booklet presented to him, not at all surprised by the loud 'Thank you, Lavi!' that was swiftly accompanied by a pair of arms wrapping around his shoulders and hugging him close.

The girl grinned happily to himself as she watched the four men begin to scribble down words in her booklets, a feeling of accomplishment overwhelming her at the thought that she had managed to convince her family to do all her work for it. At this rate she would be done with her studied by the end of dinner and then she would have time to play with Lero and her dolls!

Unfortunately the sense of excitement died nearly as swiftly as it came when Road finally decided to look over the Noah of bond's work, her jaw dropping at what she found. On the page was not the biology facts she was looking for, but a series of the same number written over and over again!

"JasDevi!" She squealed, immediately snatching the work books away from the one giggling and one smirking males, her dark eyes wide as she helplessly flipped through the pages to find the same incorrect answer, "What are you doing?! This is biology!"  
"Is that what that was?" The dark haired one of the two snickered, "So close."  
Lavi couldn't help but think that that was an overstatement, considering the fact that he was fairly certain that the act in which plants released oxygen was not 5.

Sighing, the Bookman Jr glanced away from his own history assignment to the fancily dressed male beside him, both amused and bemused to find that he had filled in 12 for every single answer on the page, and the assignment wasn't even math.

"Uh… Tyki, what are you doing?"  
"Hm?" Golden eyes glanced away from the ruined book to the red head before flickering back to his work, a slight smirk marring his features at the ginger's obvious confusion, "It would look as though I was doing geography, Red."

"Well yeah," Lavi agreed, "But why are ya just puttin' some random number?" He leaned over closer to the Pleasure to get a better look at the page, "Ya know, I'm not sayin' I know everything or anything, but I'm pretty sure that Africa isn't in between the twelfth and the twelfth oceans…"

Tyki hummed softly in silent agreement, tuning out the feuding Road and JasDevi in front of him,

"You're probably right about that, Red."

"But you're not gonna help her?"

"I can't help her if I don't know the answers."

Lavi blinked at that simple statement, surprised. He admitted that even he wasn't aware of every little geographic thing, but he was still pretty sure that that answer was pretty simple, especially for a twenty something year old male like Tyki.

The male in question, seeming to understand the Red head's sudden silence, continued filling in the same number,

"I never received a formal education." He explained shortly, "In fact, I know very little book wise."

This once again startled Lavi, who had originally perceived the formal male to be quite intelligent seeing as he enjoyed reading, knew the anatomy of all living beings and was an Earl. Weren't royalty supposed to always be well educated?

The Noah of Memories was about to voice his questions when suddenly he was cut off by Road's voice, this time it seemed as though it was closer.

"You two are no help!" She complained, moving over to wrap her arms around Tyki as she stuck her tongue out at the laughing twins, "At least Uncle Tyki is taking this seriously and helping me! He-…. Uncle Tyki!"

This time even Lavi had to stifle a chuckle at the bewildered look on the seemingly young girl's face upon finding that her Uncle's workbook, just like the twins, was filled in with nothing but the same numerous dotted down continuously,

"I thought you said you would help me!"

"Yes, and I did. I am fairly certain that the answer is twelve." The Pleasure replied leisurely, bringing a cigarette up to his mouth in a half attempt to hide the smirk forming on his face, "Was I wrong?"

"None of you are any help!"

In obvious exasperation the girl quickly collected the books the others were supposedly helping her with and stacked them back by her desk, even going so far as to take away the assignment that Lavi had been given.

"Uh, didn't ya want help on that, Road?" The red head asked, the grin on his face showing just how amused he was by this whole conversation.

"Hmph, I did, but no one is helping!" She gave the boy a glare and irritably wrenched open her history book, "I bet you just did the same thing they did! Now I have to erase all these numbers too and -… wait… THESE ARE ALL ACTUAL ANSWERS?!"

The Dream's voice practically caused the whole place to shake as a large smile erupted onto her face as she flipped through the pages she had given to Lavi. They weren't just numbers! They were actual answers that Road recognized as being right! Lavi actually was trying to help her!

"Thank you, Lavi!" She squealed, lunging at the red head and tackling him in a hug before handing him back the history book, "You didn't just write down random numbers!"

He chuckled somewhat awkwardly. Was he supposed to…?

"Well, no… I kinda thought you wanted the right answers…?"

"I do! But they never actually do it for me! I'm going to start asking you for help more often!"

Beside him, Lavi could hear Tyki laugh softly at the idea and the ginger couldn't help but wonder if he really should have just bullshitted the answers like the others…

DGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGM

"You could have warned me!" Lavi complained, narrowing his single green eye at the laugh he received from the male walking besides him down the hall, "Now she is never going to leave me alone!"

"I suppose it just slipped my mind." The pleasure mused, sending the red head a sly grin that only proved further that the male hadn't forgotten anything.

"You ass, no you didn't!"

"Ah, maybe you're right."

Lavi groaned,

"She's never going to stop asking me to do her homework now…"

The dinner had just ended and the two Noahs were now getting ready for their new mission, which completely erased the slim chance they had to rejoin their human friends. Lavi himself didn't mind so much, but he had a feeling that Tyki was pretty bummed out by it, seeing as their few days long vacation was shortened to only hours thanks to the impromptu dinner the Earl called.

At said dinner the Earl had assigned new jobs for each Noah, claiming that the exorcists had been killing too many of his 'precious babies' and that it was time for them to start progressively fighting back. It was also at that dinner that, much to Lavi's dismay, Road had declared that Lavi was now her 'Homework doll' which was pretty much her way of saying that she was going to start bugging Lavi whenever she had homework. Apparently Tyki found that absolutely freaking hysterical.

"You're right, she's not." Tyki leisurely agreed, adjusting his top hat as he gave the red head a mischievous smirk, "That's why no one ever answers her homework correctly."

"But you said that you didn't answer your questions right because you didn't know them."

"Yes, that's true, but that was because it was geography, red. Even if she had given me anatomy I still would have put the same numbers as I did previously. Once you help that girl with her work you won't hear the end of it."  
"That would have been nice to know about an hour ago…" Lavi grumbled, crossing his arms as he groaned again, "Now I gotta put up with her as well as with the Earl and the god damn Panda… This sucks…"

The Pleasure chuckled again at the boy's obvious dismay,

"Perhaps, but for now we have another mission to conduct."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's what, another search and destroy for innocence?"  
"No, not this time, Red. It seems as though the Earl is beginning to put more faith in you because this time…" A malicious scowl spread across the taller of the two's face as he handed the card he had received over to the red head, "Our mission is to exterminate an exorcist from the European Branch. Some Ace Wind (1)."

Somewhat startled by the new mission, Junior could do nothing more than stare dumbly at the card he now held in his hands, his single green eye wide,

"An extermination?"

Tyki nodded,

"Looks like the Order has been recruiting some more exorcists and the Earl isn't fond of that." He stated nonchalantly as he idly messed with a cigarette, "If they keep growing like this they might begin to pose as a threat to his plans, so he wants his family to get rid of a few of 'em."

"I see… Tyki, can I ask ya something?"

"Hm? Go ahead."

"How many exorcists have you killed?"

The Pleasure chuckled softly at the question, his golden eyes flickering over to the red head,

"I'm afraid I lost track long ago, Red, though I have taken a button from most of them and given it to Eeze, so I suppose if you really wanted to know you could ask how many buttons he has."

Lavi stared at the older male beside him in question, about to ask him why it was that he would do something so… grotesque – After all, giving a kid a button a murderer took from his victim as a souvenir was rather disgusting, or at the very least that was what Lavi figured-, however he bit his tongue and decided that that was a question that was probably best saved for later. He didn't want to accidentally pry into a subject that the male wished to keep private and settled with just settling the question with all the others that he had grown to wonder about the strange Noah who seemed so fixated on also living a human life.

Instead he brought his attention back to the playing card in his hand with the name of the unfortunate man,

"So, about this mission…"

DGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGM

It was a day later that the two Noah finally made it to Italy, where the Exorcist on their list was stationed to uncover a piece of innocence that was supposedly located there. Apparently the locals in a small town would tell of stories in which, at the dead of night, there would be ghostly apparitions of what seemed to be women dancing along the water of a spring in the middle of the village. It was said that anyone who drank from the body of water would go delusional and eventually disappear into the water; lured to their death by the spirits. It certainly did sound like the work of some sort of innocence.

After checking out the details with the locals the two males found out that the exorcist in question had just arrived that morning, making it so they were just in time to beat him to the Innocence and take his life as well as the object of his attention.

That was why Lavi and Tyki were currently perched in one of the trees that surrounded the water's edge, both waiting viligently for the familiar coat of the Apostle of god to make its way into their sight. It was several hours past sundown, making it so their target was due to make his appearance very soon.

"Hey, Red…"

Glancing in the direction of the voice, Lavi looked over at Tyki, who was sitting one branch above and beside his own, an unlit cigarette in his slim fingers.

"What is it, Birthmark?"

"I left my lighter in my white outfit."  
"Yeah…?"

"Can I get a light?"

Lavi couldn't help but sigh at the question and rolled his eyes,

"Again? I'm not a human lighter for ya damn cigarettes, mole. Ya know, you shouldn't even be smoking those things, they aren't good for you."

The Noah laughed softly,

"I didn't know you cared, Red, I'm touched."  
"I don't…"

The cigarette was extended closer to the red head and Lavi begrudedly complied with the silent request, lifting up his eyepatch before concentrating on the stick, watching in satisfaction as within a moment a small fire dragon formed before lighting the cigarette and disappearing again.

"Much obliged, rabbit." The Pleasure grinned and brought the cancer stick to his mouth, inhaling the nicotine with a small sigh of contentment, purposely ignoring the exasperated look he received from his comrade at the nickname.

"Don't you start calling me that too… I don't even look like a stupid rabbit…"

"I don't know, Red, I think it fits you well."

"What do you-…"

His question was cut off as the soft sound of a stick cracking a few yards from their position gained their attention, causing the feuding pair to immediately quiet. The Exorcist had finally arrived.

DGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGM

"Damn it…" The exorcist cursed under his breath, his brown eyes flickering around his surroundings irritably, "Don't tell me I'm lost again… Geez, Blake'll never let me hear the end of this…"

So far this seemingly simple mission had proved to be anything but. Ace had arrived late that morning, just as Komui had said he would, however that was really the only thing that worked out as planned.

The townsfolk had been incompetent at best, none of them able –or rather willing- to point him in the right direction. Instead they all seemed to favor sending him on various types of wild goose chases. An old lady informed him that the river he was seeking could be found several miles to the East, and when he went as was directed and found the instructions to be false he returned to the town and asked a male for assistance. That male led him a mile or so West, which once again resulted in nothing more than a dead end and a worsened headache.

Finally, at his wits end, Ace had succumbed to buying a map and attempted to find his own way through the seemingly endless flora that blanketed the small town. So far he had been aimlessly trekking through the woods for several hours and he still had not seen even the slightest sign of the water that supposedly housed the innocence he was after.

In fact, he decided that if he did not come across the lake soon he would call it a night and return to his hotel before trying again the following night.

Perhaps if he had turned then and walked away he would have been able to live another day, but it was for not for he continued his journey regardless of the sense of unease that nearly suffocated him with every step. Had he turned around then he would not have alerted his presence to the bickering Noah pair several yards ahead of him by stepping on a twig some several steps later, however he did, and he would soon learn to regret his stubbornness for not giving up.

"I hope I'm not lost again."

"Ah, I'm afraid being lost is the least of your worries right now, Exorcist."

Ace froze immediately at the voice, his hand instantly going to the holster on his waist where his dagger like innocence was kept, ready to draw it at any moment.

"Who's there?"

"Ah, yes, my apologies. Where are my manners?" With a dark chuckle a form now only feet from the exorcist jumped out, his golden eyes glinting maliciously in the beams of moonlight that managed to pierce through the expanse of tree limbs, "My name is Tyki Mikk, at your service."

Immediately the black haired exorcists' eyes widened at the eye color and he wiped out his weapon defensively. There was only ever one type of individual that processed eyes so golden and a smile so very wicked.

He had the misfortune of meeting the highest level of akuma known to Exorcists.

"A Noah…"

"Right you are." He mused, nonchalantly inhaling another breath of his cigarette before slowly releasing the smoke, his relaxed demeanor never wavering in the slightest, "If you came to acquire the innocence I'm afraid you are already too late. I retrieved it hours ago."

With another charmingly evil grin the Pleasure flicked the stick to the side before digging into his pocket and pulled out a small, rectangular object that seemed to almost grow in the dimly lit patch of forest.

Ace's eyes widened and a frown pulled at his lips as he studied the object being held so carefully by the grinning male, his anger and unease only surging. He was too late. The Noah had already managed to find and take the Innocence!

"Damn it…"

"I take it I was right, then?" The Portuguese man smirked, "This is what you came for, isn't it? A shame. In fact I-…"

"Are you done yet, or do ya just love hearing yerself talk?"

Jumping down from the tree he remained in during the conversation between his fellow Noah and the exorcist, Lavi jeered softly to the Pleasure, beginning to bore of the dark haired male's teasing,

The Portuguese man, on the other hand, could feel his eye begin to twitch at his comrade's interruption, his gold eyes moving to meet a similar golden one as well as a wide grin from the red haired Noah, ignoring the surprised and scared curse from their victim at finding that there were not one but two Noahs around,

"Red, I-…"  
"And why the hell do you always talk so formally and act all high and mighty? We're just here to destroy the innocence and kill this exorcist, not invite him to tea with the Queen."

Lavi had to suppress a chuckle at the growing irritation forming on Tyki's face at his questions, more than aware of the fact that he was getting on his friend's nerves, yet that did nothing to deter him from his teasing.

"Must you ruin all my lines?" The Pleasure sighed, knowing that his attempt at acting cool and suave was all but shattered thanks to the red headed nitwit beside him, "Now I forget where I was… No matter…"

"Two Noahs… Enough with this, damn it! Give me that Innocence, Noah!" The dark haired exorcist growled, his dagger pointed towards the formally dressed Pleasure, "Give it to me now or I'll make you!"

"Oh? Will you now?" The grin on Tyki's face returned at the halfhearted threat and even Lavi couldn't help but be amused by the other's words, knowing them to be hallow. The Exorcist had no chance against one Noah let alone the two standing before him and even he had to be aware of that.

 _The idiot is just being foolishly brave to mask his fear._ Lavi mused idly to himself, settling with just watching the fight from the sidelines as was expected of him as a Bookman _, Only the strong survive… It seems even humans aren't evolved enough to prove that theory wrong…_

Because that was all that exorcists were; humans with the weapons of a god. They had no chance against demons like the Noahs, not even with their so called deity's holly weapons. It was too bad that they had to find that out the hard way.

He forced a look of disinterest to form on his face as he watched the exorcist attack the Noah out of both fear and anger, his dagger emitting what seemed to be static electricity before he lunged at the Pleasure and attempted to stab him with it.

Naturally Tyki dodged the swipe effortlessly and merely grinned wider at the stunned Ace, his white teeth taking on a sharp edge as his Noah side began to show,

"What a nifty toy you have there, sparky, but I'm afraid it won't do you any good. I'll be destroying that Innocence as well as yours before the end of the night."

"Damn it, no you won't, you bastard! I won't lose to you!"

Lunging in what could only be a furious haze, the electricity surging through the dagger shot forward in a bolt towards the Noah, missing by only inches before it ended up slamming into a nearby tree with a loud crackle.

This fight was futile and they all knew it, yet it continued on for several more minutes in which the Exorcist continuously attacked the Pleasure to no avail. Every attack he sent at the top hatted male either missed completely or struck the nearby vegetation. As it was he was doing nothing but tiring himself out and was soon was forced to the defensive side when Tyki grew bored of the game and decided to strike back.

"You've began to bore me." The pleasure mused, having managed to pin Ace against a nearby tree, one hand already inserted inside the terrified exorcist's chest, "I think I'll destroy your innocence first before killing you. Maybe you have the heart, shall we test it out?"

The look on Tyki's face was nothing Lavi had ever seen before as he played with the poor human. It was a smirk that showed no emotion but bitter amusement at the prospect of death and the Bookman Apprentice couldn't help but feel unnerved by it, regardless of the fact that he was not the one in danger. He knew that humans could be heartless, but he had never seen one so cruel…

The red head couldn't help but bring a hand up to his chest, covering the area in which he knew his heart was as he watched Tyki tighten his grip on the exorcists heart slightly, the boy – who couldn't have been more than two years older than Lavi- screamed at the action, his eyes widening even further as he watched his now helpless Innocence be demolished by the Noah's hands. It was almost immediately after he watched his weapon be destroyed that the male known as Ace's shoulders slumped forward, any will to fight long gone with his weapon.

The other Innocence in the area –the one that he and Tyki had found- remained unharmed in the Noah's hands, proving that this boy did not have the Heart, not that either of them really expected him to.

"Ah, a pity, it looks as though you didn't have the Heart after all… Well, no matter, this was just a hunt and destroy mission, nothing else." Carelessly, Tyki tossed the remaining Innocence to Lavi, who promptly caught it, "Now, have you any last words, Sparky?"

The defeated exorcist remained silent for a minute, his dark eyes dully staring at the ground for several moments before they moved up to meet the single golden eye of the red head, a silent plea for help glinting in the brown pupil before it flickered back over to the Noah who literally held his life in his hand.

"F-Fuck you…"

With the last rebellious feeling he had Ace spit in the face of Tyki, startling him.

"How vulgar…" He complained, otherwise unfazed by the action as he carefully wiped the saliva on the shoulder of his coat, "You exorcists truly are unsatisfactory creatures."  
It was with that that the black haired boy smirked slightly as the Pleasure removed his still beating heart from his body.

Lavi looked away.

That was one part of history that did not require being seen.

As a soft chuckle filtered through the forest from the thoroughly amused Tyki, the red head turned away from the no doubt gruesome scene before him. Noah or not, he still could not find the joy of the kill like his brothers and sisters could and he really had no desire to develop that ability.

Yes, he was an unfeeling Bookman, but that didn't mean that he wanted to see death and despair, it was just part of the job. He wasn't a Noah…. He wasn't like Tyki or Road… He didn't want to kill innocent humans, he just had to watch it for history… Yet there was still a part of him that he struggled to suppress that enjoyed the aspect of murder; that adored the sight of the bloodied and dead exorcist being strapped to a tree upside down by the now humming pleasure. The Noah of Memories within him rejoiced at the thought of yet another Exorcist being defeated and the Bookman in Lavi didn't care. It was the human side, however small, that felt sick at the smell of blood now pungent in the air. Another exorcist was dead.

His gaze flickered down to the faintly glowing rock still in his hand and he clenched it in his grip lightly. He knew Tyki expected him to destroy it, just as he had every other piece of Innocence he had found in past missions, however, just like every time before, the Bookman apprentice found himself hesitating. It almost felt as though a piece of the Innocence was calling to him, attempting to persuade him to keep it; to merge with it, and quite frankly, it scared him.

So he summoned his dark matter and broke it, watching emotionlessly as it turned to nothing more than dust swept away by the wind. He was just imagining it, the Innocence was not calling to him nor was it attempting to convince him to become one with it. He was a Noah and the Innocence was his enemy, there was nothing more to it.

With that thought in mind Lavi walked back over to Tyki, purposely ignoring the hanging corpse before him as the Pleasure removed a button from the dead man's coat before walking with the red head out of the forest and out of the town, the grin on his face never wavering in the slightest.

This was the cruelty of the Noah; the desire for blood lust that Tyki adored and Lavi was expected to as well, yet he didn't. He couldn't.

Yet deep inside he did and before he knew it he was also subconsciously grinning and humming in tune with the male beside him.


End file.
